The effect of aerobic exercise on the capacity of working memory after olfactory sensory destruction
Paper ID : 1341-SSRC-13TH
Authors
Farzaneh Zeynali *1, Reza Gharakhanlou1, Mohammad Shariatzadeh2, Mohammad Reza Raoufy3, Jalaledin Noroozi3
1Department of Exercise Physiology & Sport Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2Sport Sciences Research Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
3Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: Nasal breathing has many health benefits, especially in exercise. Airflow through the nose stimulates the Olfactory Bulb during the breathing cycle, associated with the airflow intensity. This information reaches the Olfactory Bulb and causes oscillations that transfer to the prefrontal cortex, hippocampal formation, and other brain areas. Brain rhythms have been associated with different cognitive states and play functional roles in network computation, such as memory. Accordingly, this study investigates the effect of aerobic exercise on capacity of working memory following Olfactory sensory neurons destruction.
Method: In this study, we used sixteen male Wistar rats (12-14 weeks, weighing 250-300 g). After implanting an electrode in the Olfactory Bulb and hippocampus for Local Field Potential recording, animals were divided into two exercises and two control groups. At the beginning of each week, one exercise group and one control group, to destroy the Olfactory sensory neurons, received 300 mg/kg methimazole. After completing the exercise protocol (5 days/ week for 7 weeks), we simultaneously recorded Local Field Potential from rat hippocampus and Olfactory Bulb during a Y-maze working memory task.
Result: methimazole injection significantly reduced the working memory and power of Delta and Theta frequencies, and exercise could prevent this decline and improve working memory. Also, Olfactory Bulb oscillations at Delta and Theta frequency ranges are significantly coherent with hippocampus activity in the correct trials in the control methimazole group (p<0.05).
Conclusion: it seems that working memory capacity is limited and in healthy or trained subjects cannot be improved through the training. However, when the working memory is impaired, exercise can have compensated effects and improve working memory.
Keywords
Aerobic Exercise, Working memory, Nasal breathing, Local field potentials
Status: Abstract Accepted (Oral Presentation)